Betancourt, U..S. hostages rescued from Colombian rebels

Colombian soldiers infiltrated a jungle camp and then used a ruse to induce leftist guerrillas to free 15 long-term hostages, including a former presidential candidate and three U.S. military contractors, officials said today, the Times' Chris Kraul is reporting.

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said the military today rescued former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three Americans employed by a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corp. and 11 others held for years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

"This was an unprecedented operation," Santos told reporters. "It will go down in history for its audaciousness and effectiveness."

According to Colombian officials, the military tricked guerrillas into bringing the hostages together to be transported to a FARC commander by helicopter. The military also infiltrated a security cordon surrounding a jungle camp in southeast Colombia.

-- Reed Johnson in Los Angeles

Photo: Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, holding a copy of her autobiography "Rage in the Heart," arrives on March 26, 2001, at Paris Justice Court. Betancourt and a score of hostages kidnapped by guerrillas were freed by a Colombian army military operation on Wednesday, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said. Jack Guez, AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[johnfrier]

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[Bill Lenner]

Thanks for the heads up, onexge and Mr. Lubliner, above.

Is anyone else getting the idea that the US is getting another Jessica Lynch snow job too?

I mean, the exact day that John McCain lands in Columbia for one day, (which some have called an attempt to endear him to Latinos in the US) this happens and then it turns out the US and Columbia and promoting a false story about it.

A report in the Times today even said that Bush had a say on whether "the rescue attempt" would happen and when. How easy to slip an email to his old buddy John McCain and for the old candidate to decide to take a quick trip to Columbia for one day along with a stop in Mexico, just at the right time....

[onexge]

The Swiss French radio report more properly speaks of a bribe; the individual FARC guards had been paid off after contacts had been established through the wife of one of them.

[Coby Lubliner]

It's curious that neither the LA Times nor, as far as I can tell, any other US media have mentioned the report by the French Swiss Radio (info.rsr.ch) -- widely reported in Europe -- that the liberation of the hostages was achieved through the payment of a $20 million ransom, and that the dramatic rescue operation was a sham staged for the political benefit of President Uribe.

[Colonel Plazos]

Finally the world has an opportunity to understand better the brutality of the FARC, which had no intention of releasing any of these people. This organization has terrorized Colombia for too long. The close relationship between the U.S. and Colombia should continue, and the U.S. should continue to support the upgrading of Colombia's anti-narcotics battalions and military intelligence capability. The Colombians are our friends and should continue to be treated that way.

Write your Congress member and drown out the far left's exaggeration of the Colombian government's human rights problems, which are significant but improving. We should continue to help Colombian gain control and move toward a more stable peace, while we do what we can hear to stem our demand for Colombian cocaine. That demand has much to do with Colombia's problems, and until we fix it, we owe them help in dealing with its consequences.

[h.c. ecco]

any chance that money changed hands????

[Pita]

Excellent job. Good intelligence and execution of
the plan.

[britt]

i am so glad about this. que viva mi colombiaaaa